4 years ago
The State Management and Good Governance Committee of the House of Representatives has passed the Citizenship Act Amendment Bill by a majority.
A meeting of the committee held at Singha Durbar on Sunday passed the Citizenship Act Amendment Bill with a proposal to grant citizenship to the adopted only after seven years.
Once passed, the way is open to send the bill to the parliament. The main opposition Nepali Congress and Janata Samajwadi Party have different views on the bill.
Congress MP Dilendra Prasad Badu said that he agreed on other points but could not agree on the provision of granting adopted citizenship after seven years of marriage.
Stating that the amendment of the Citizenship Act was not in accordance with the federal law mentioned in the constitution, he said that it was unconstitutional and an attempt was made to amend the constitution itself.
Rajpa leader Rajendra Mahato claimed that the adopted citizen did not disturb Nepal's nationality. He said that this would create not only constitutional but also family problems.
Earlier on Saturday, a meeting of the secretariat of the ruling Communist Party of Nepal had decided that it would be appropriate to grant adopted citizenship to a foreign woman who marries a Nepali man after seven years.
On the basis of the same decision of the party, the CPN (Maoist) MPs in the committee had voted in favor of the seven-year proposal.
The committee has also proposed in the bill to give permanent residence permit to foreign women until they get adopted citizenship. It has seven different rights besides political and government appointments.
This provision has also been passed. Apart from adoption, other proposals made by the State Management Committee have been passed unanimously.
